Despite being one of the earliest players in the financial technology boom across Europe, the global ambitions of the Berlin-based online bank N26 have caused a setback in service diversification, N26 co-founder and co-CEO said. Max Tayenthal in a recent interview. After exiting two critical fintech markets, the US and the UK, N26 plans to "sharpen its focus on its European business" by introducing new products and services to its 7 million customers. According to Tayenthal, who admitted that the online bank needs to expand its product universe, N26 aims to launch a cryptocurrency trading business in 2022, followed by a stock brokerage, instead of "flagging new markets." The N26 mobile app currently does not offer crypto functionality and the features of the upcoming cryptocurrency trading product have yet to be revealed.
The company was hit by several restrictions in May 2021 by BaFin, the German federal financial supervisor, in part due to a lack of anti-money laundering controls. BaFin has ruled that N26, which accepted an average of 170,000 new customers per month last year, cannot ship more than 50,000 customers per month.